


Avoiding Love

by SmartassUndertheMountain



Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies), The Lord of the Rings (Movies)
Genre: Elrond gives love advice, F/M, Fluff, Lindir just wants answers, One-Shot, Reader-Insert, half elf/half dwarf reader, request
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-12
Updated: 2015-01-12
Packaged: 2018-03-07 06:39:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,155
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3165065
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SmartassUndertheMountain/pseuds/SmartassUndertheMountain
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You have fallen for Lindir, but a few insecurities may keep you from telling him. Lord Elrond tries to set you straight.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Avoiding Love

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ElvenQueen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElvenQueen/gifts).



             You were walking down the halls of Rivendell, lost in your thoughts when you ran into a wall. A moving, talking wall, that fell down with you.

            “Lady Y/N! My apologies, I was not watching where I was walking. Are you alright?”

            You looked up at the brown haired ellon who had already recovered his footing. Lindir smiled apologetically and held his hand out to you. You grasped it and let him help you stand up.

            “I am fine, Lindir. I was not paying attention either. Sorry.” You nodded your head in respect before walking away from him. You felt rude for being so curt with him. Normally that would have been a wonderful excuse to talk with him for a few hours, but not any more. 

            You recently found yourself developing feelings for the ellon. The only major problem was that he could never share your feelings. You were no lovely elleth. Your thoughts turned towards your personal history. Your mother had been an elf of the woodland realm, your father a dwarf of Erebor. You had inherited more of your father’s looks: his untameable hair, short stature (though a bit taller than him because of your mother), his broader figure, and thick fingers (at least compared to an elf’s). What little you did receive from your mother was not a big consolation; you had your mother’s wise-looking eyes, pale skin, and lack of facial hair.           

            The lack of facial hair kept you from being appealing to dwarves, and everything else kept you from being desirable to elves. Long ago you had accepted that fact and decided that you could be more than happy pursuing a life of academics. Your unexpected attraction to Lindir had thrown you for a loop, and thrown all your old insecurities back into the spotlight.

            “Y/N,” Lord Elrond pulled you back to reality, “would you join me for some tea? I was hoping we could discuss something,” the old elf said with a smile on his face.

            “I would love to, Lord Elrond,” you said, changing directions to walk beside of him. “What is it you would like to discuss?”

            “It is best we wait until we get to my office for that,” he said with a smile, guiding you through the halls and into his office, exchanging pleasantries along the way. “Are you enjoying your stay?”

            “I always do, My Lord. Though I seem to have difficulty finding enough time for the gardens this time around, since my main goal revolves around the libraries,” you said, somewhat regretfully.

            “And how is your research coming? Finding anything interesting?” 

            “Poorly and yes. Yes, there are mountains of interesting information in the library, but as far as information pertaining to my search - there seems to be little that I had not already found, though there are several records that go into more detail. It is not the new information I hoped for.”

            “It is possible that there is no record of it at all,” Elrond mused aloud.

            “I have tried to keep that in mind throughout my search. There is one place I have not searched yet.”

            “Would you really go to Erebor and slay a dragon for this information?” He sounded astonished and surprised.

            “You know that is not the library to which I refer,” you said, not finding his humour all that funny.

            “Yes, but teasing you is too much fun to resist,” he chuckled. “Come, sit, we have much to discuss,” he gestured you into an arm chair as he shut the door behind you.

            “Okay, now what is it?”

            “Tea?”

            “Elrond.” Your voice held the edge of a threat that you both knew would never come to fruition.

            “Okay,” Elrond said, sitting down next to you, “I have noticed that you are not as relaxed here as you have been in previous visits, and I cannot help but see that you are flustered every time you are around Lindir.”

            “Flustered?”

            “The most accurate word, I think. You blush, get tongue-tied, which makes you blush more, then you wind up looking at the ground, mumbling an excuse to leave, and hurrying away. If that isn’t flustered then I’m two thousand,” Elrond said, finishing with what he hoped sounded like a joke. He did not want to embarrass you further.

            “So what if I am a bit flustered around him? What does that matter?” Your tone was defensive, which gave away more than your words.

            “It matters because you are hiding away feelings that should be dealt with and causing the poor ellon to wonder why you dislike him so much that you hurry away whenever he is near. It matters because if you continue like you do your future will not have the happy ending that it could.”

            “You’ve seen something.”

            “Yes.” He kept the answer short for want of making you ask more questions.

            “Tell me, please. If it is my future then do I not have the right to know?”

            “The first time you arrived in Rivendell, when you met Lindir, anyone could see that you could become friends, and you did. Though each time you came after that you grew further apart because you spent more time in library-“

            “Out of necessity.”

            “Yes, out of necessity. Nonetheless, you and Lindir grew apart.” Elrond paused and watched you.

            “Yes, that much cannot be argued.” You hoped the agreement would encourage him further.

            “When Lindir first greeted you so many years ago I saw you standing in Rivendell in a white gown, Lindir by your side. Since you have grown apart I see you separately, Lindir sailing into the West, and you living unfulfilled, surrounded by the books that once made you so happy.” Elrond stopped, saddened by the look of understanding and fear written across your face by wide eyes, worried brow, and mouth hanging open. He slid across the distance between you and knelt at your feet. He took your short thick hands in his long lean ones. “I do not want that future for either of you, Y/N. I want you to live a long and happy life, with one who wants to spend it with you.”

            “But how could he want that? How could he want to spend part of his eternity with a short, thick, untameable half-dwarf?”

            “Is that how you see yourself? Oh, Y/N, you should know better than that. You are one of a kind. A beautiful mixing of two races, and you got the best of both. Many do not even get the best of the one race that they are. You are smart, excellent with both pen, sword, bow, and axe. You speak common tongue, elvish, and khuzdul. You are unparalleled when it comes to diplomatic relations. Why wouldn’t he want to spend his eternity with you?”

            You smiled at his compliments. You fought the urge to hug him, because you knew elves did not do it outside their immediate families, but when he opened his arms to you you flung yourself into them. “Thank you,” you whispered into his ear.

            “You are welcome,” he said, pulling back. “Now go, there is ellon in Rivendell that needs you.” He smiled.

            You bowed respectfully and hurried out of the room. It was coming up on mid afternoon, Lindir should be in the garden reading the week’s inventory, you thought to yourself. He thought it was a secret that he did most of his document reading in the garden, but everyone knew. They were just polite enough to let him keep his ‘secret.’ You walked through the garden, going to the least walked paths, figuring he would find refuge there. Just before you turned the corner of the hedge you heard a soft sigh, a mumble in elvish, and sound of papers being shifted through. Risking a peep you saw Lindir with his head practically buried in the pile of papers next to him on a bench.

            You gnawed on your lip, wanting desperately to go talk to him. ‘He is busy,’ you reasoned with yourself. ‘It will do no good for me to interrupt him when he is trying to work. I know it would frustrate me if someone wanted to pour their heart out to me while I was trying to work, even if that person was the love of my life,’ by this point you knew your so-called logic was shaky, but it was just stable enough for you to turn on your heel and begin walking away. Until you heard:

            “Wait!”

            You paused mid-step, but refused to turn around.

            “Y/N! Please, do not run away from me. Come sit with me. Please?” Lindir’s voice was soft, filled with confusion, hurt, and hope.

            You peaked back around the hedge. “I do not want to distract you from your work,” you said, allowing him a chance to retract his offer.

            “I would welcome the distraction, especially one so pleasant as _you._ ” he smiled. It was not unusual for elves to compliment so freely, but something about the way he emphasised the word ‘you’ made you think that the compliment was genuine.

            “In that case, I would love to distract you,” you said, as you walked over to him.

            He cleared away his papers and set them at his feet so you could sit next to him. The bench was small and there was little space between the two of you. You sat in a somewhat uncomfortable silence for a minute or so before he turned to you and spoke.

            “Why do you seem to avoid me so much? I cannot think how I have offended you, but if I have please tell me what I did so that I may apologize for it, mellon,” Lindir wore his stoic face, expressing no emotion, but you could hear the hard edge to his voice, the one that meant depending on your answer he could become very angry or very sad in a matter of seconds.

            “Lindir, you have done nothing, nor could you ever do anything to offend me. It is I that should apologize for being so rude and absent in our friendship. My insecurities and fears kept me from spending time with you. Please, forgive me for being so silly?”

            “Insecurities and fears? What have you to fear, or be insecure about?”

            “Please, Lindir, do not make me say it,” you did not try to keep the begging tone from you voice.

            Lindir’s face softened. He reached up and brushed a strand of hair off your forehead before letting his hand fall just enough to cup you cheek. “Mellon-nin,” he whispered, “tell me.”

            You pushed your face into his hand a little, comforted by the touch, but knowing the butterflies could emerge any second. “Growing up with dwarves I accepted that I was not what dwarf men defined as beautiful, and that I could never be the elvish definition of beauty. I became content to live my life with books and swords and adventures, literary and non. Then I met you,” you paused, worried that you would scare him away, but his deep brown eyes coaxed you to tell him more. “I started caring again, caring about how I could never possibly catch your eye, about how you would fall in love with a beautiful elleth and never know that I have fallen for you.” Your last words came out slowly, because with them went your heart, onto your sleeve.

            Lindir did not say anything, he just kept watching you. His chocolate eyes searched your face for any signs of lying, though he would never expect that of you, but his heart was in such a delicate place at that moment that any deception might break him. When he found only honesty he smiled and let out a soft chuckle.

            “Y/N, how could I fall in love with any elleth but you? You have had my heart from the moment I laid eyes on you, whether you wanted it or not.” His smile widened.

            “I thought love at first sight only existed between two elves?”        

            “You are elvish decent, are you not?” He took your silence as an answer. “And though you may not have known what it was, you recognised a change. Y/N, if that is not love then I do not know what love is.” Lindir took your hands in his. “Say you will let me court you, please.”

            “Nothing would make me happier,” you said, withdrawing your hands from his and throwing your arms around his neck. His arms went around your back and held you close to him. He glanced up, to thank the Valar, but saw Lord Elrond watching from a balcony above. Elrond bowed his head slightly, knowingly, a smirk plastered on his face.

            “Don’t we need Lord Elrond’s blessing?” You had never been clear on elvish dating customs.

            “I think we already have it."

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you like your request; sorry it took so long (I started it three different times before I combined the best parts, hopefully). I also wasn't expecting it to be so long, my hand sorta ... slipped and Elrond just sort of happened. If this wasn't what you were wanting I can try again.
> 
> I own nothing, but I appreciate everyone who reads this and likes it. I love accepting requests.


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